Jaguar touts aluminum features on upcoming XE

Jaguar Land Rover is touting the aluminum features on its upcoming Jaguar XE sedan, promising that it will be the most fuel efficient vehicle in brand history.

The XE will have fuel consumption as low as 75 UK mpg (62 U.S. mpg; 3.8l/100km) and CO2 emissions of less than 100g/km, Jaguar said in a statement.

Jaguar's efforts underscore how automakers -- particularly Ford Motor Co. with its aluminum-bodied 2015 F-150 -- are accelerating their use of the metal to cut weight and improve fuel economy.

The XE, expected to compete with the BMW 3 series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C class, will feature a body made of more than 75 percent aluminum, the company said in a technology update on Tuesday.

The car will include an integral link rear suspension to improve ride and handling, and electric power steering that will allow engineers to incorporate active safety and driver-aid features.

It’s the first vehicle to use Jaguar Land Rover’s new aluminum-based rear-wheel-drive architecture. The automaker said the XE will be the first car to use a new grade of high strength aluminum dubbed RC 5754 that has been “developed specifically for the XE.”

Jaguar will unveil the XE on Sept. 8 in London at a gala event with British singer songwriter Emeli Sande ahead of the car's public debut at the Paris auto show in October. European sales of the XE start in 2015, followed by U.S. deliveries a year later.

The aluminum “gives us a body structure with unrivalled low weight: it's light but also immensely strong with extremely high levels of torsional stiffness,” Mark White, Jaguar's chief technical specialist, body complete, said in a statement.

The most fuel efficient XE will be a diesel version. The XE will be the first vehicle to get Jaguar Land Rover's Ingenium family of four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines. Ingenium engines will be built at a new plant in Wolverhampton, England, starting early next year.